Nearly three years ago, Goldman Sachs announced that it had selected the Long Beach and Los Angeles area for its 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative to help small businesses create jobs and economic opportunity.

The $500 million program set aside $20 million in loans for Greater Long Beach to provide capital and information through classes at Long Beach City College, Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles Southwest College.

Today, more than 900 small business owners have participated in the program, including roughly 250 people in Southern California ranging from new business owners familiarizing themselves with the process to longtime owners re-evaluating their businesses to see how they can be more effective.

Katalin Van Over, CEO of ProLogic IT, credits her success to the program, which allowed her to see her business from a different perspective and facilitated her transformation from a COO to a CEO position.

"(It) gave me the skills to become the leader of my company," she said in a statement. "This in turn resulted in the single largest growth experienced at our company. Participating in the 10,000 Small Businesses program was one of the most vital strategic decisions I made about my business."

The program at Long Beach City College has seen great success, said Lou Anne Bynun, executive vice president, College Advancement and Economic Development at LBCC.

About 25 percent of the participants come from the Long Beach area, she said, adding that data from the first two cohorts showed that 75 percent of participants showed an increase in sales after taking the program and 50 percent reported the hiring of more employees.

The program is recruiting businesses for open enrollment. The deadline to apply at Los Angeles City College is 5 p.m. on Thursday, and the deadline to apply at Long Beach City College is at 5 p.m. on Feb. 11.

Selected small business will get a scholarship to attend the program, and receive one-on-one business advising sessions from professionals. The program is made up of 100 hours of instruction as well as networking events, legal and financial clinics and other activities to help businesses.

There will be information workshops from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 9 to 11 a.m. on Feb. 6 and from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Feb. 20 at Long Beach City College, 4900 East Conant St., Building O-2, Room 234.

The Feb. 6 workshop includes a seminar on the topic, "Getting Certified as a Woman-Owned Business and Strategies for Using the Certification."